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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to